Basketball Recap: Jacob Lunceford's Big Game Can't Quite Lead Ukiah over Eureka

Ukiah was the 61-55 winner over Eureka when they last played one another back in December of 2023, but their luck changed this time around. The Ukiah Wildcats took a 57-51 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Eureka Loggers. While losing is never fun, the Wildcats can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 838th, while the Loggers are ranked 259th).

Several Wildcats players turned in solid performances despite ultimately coming up short. Perhaps the best among those players was Jacob Lunceford, who went 6 for 9 on his way to 15 points and five rebounds. The dominant performance gave Lunceford a new career-high in points. The team also got some help courtesy of Kaleo Olson, who posted 13 points in addition to eight boards and four steals.

Even though they lost, Ukiah was working as a unit and finished the game with 12 assists. That's the most assists they've managed all season.

This is the second loss in a row for Ukiah and nudges their season record down to 4-16. As for Eureka, the win (which was their third in a row) raised their record to 14-4.

Both teams will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Ukiah has already played their next matchup (against Elsie Allen), but no score has been uploaded at the time of writing. Eureka will challenge Arcata at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday. One thing working in Eureka's favor is that they have posted at least 55 points in their last three contests.